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They say that the best camera is the one you have with you—and nowadays, it seems that more and more this is the iPhone.

So when the folks over at i-Divesite gave DPG a close look at their i-Pix housing for the iPhone at DEMA, I knew I had to test it out. After a month testing the housing in Grand Cayman I am shocked to say that I never once used my trusty DSLR.

So what would cause a underwater photographer to favor his cell phone over a top-of-the-line DSLR in a prime location? Well you’ll just have to read on.

The iPhone Camera

Camera phones have been around since 2000, but the days of the 1-megapixel monstrosities are far behind. Today, the latest iPhones feature an 8-megapixel camera built around a relatively open f2.8 lens.

Mobile photographs have also taken off with the success of Instagram, a mobile-only photo feed. They appear in newspapers, magazines and are even being accepted by stock agencies. That’s not even delving into the 1080p HD video recording.

With the success of iPhone photography topside, it was only a matter of time before the avalanche of housings came tumbling down the mountain. While we had seen a handful of “tough” or “waterproof” housings, the i-Pix was the first to be truly aimed at underwater photographers. The manufacturer, i-Divesite, is the maker of fine underwater video lights, camera trays, and other accessories.

The i-Pix features a full suspension system that “floats” your iPhone for maximum protection and is depth rated to 130 feet. The company put a great amount of attention into the little details: the lens is made from glass to improve optical image clarity, there’s a lens baffle to protect from the halo effect and a threaded bezel to attach accessories. The housing also features a distinct grip so that the camera can be held as easily with one hand as with two.

The end result is a setup that looks, feels, and responds like the top-of-line compact camera. In fact, most days on the boat other divers didn’t even realize that it was my phone until I removed it from the housing.

The housing features three buttons that allow the user to access the lower quarter of the touch screen, as well as a fourth control to push the phone’s “home” button.

Before using the housing, I wondered why you would even need to use the home button. As it turned out, it proved to be quite useful if you want to switch between several photography apps depending on the situation—some dives I just used the native camera app, while on others I used an app specially designed for panoramas.

Using the i-Pix and iPhone underwater

While the i-Pix housing could serve over and beyond as a surf, snorkel or pool housing, what really makes it unique is its performance as true underwater camera for divers. A big part of this comes from the custom made app that often outperforms the iPhone’s native “camera” application.

Watershot AppThe Watershot App is a free download, which is designed to work specifically with the i-Pix’s three-button configuration. The app does many of the same things as the standard iPhone camera app like switching between photo and video recording, but it also has features that proved useful underwater like flicking through images in playback.

One of the hardest decisions to make underwater is whether to shoot in stills or video. The Watershot App allows the user to capture stills in video mode, which I found useful especially with more rare encounters like eagle rays, turtles and mantas.

Rapid-fire mode is another feature not seen in the iPhone’s native app. I made sure to use this when in fast-paced situations like a shootout at Stingray City.

The rapid fire mode in the Watershot App is great for fast-paced situations

The only downside to the App is the lack of ability to playback videos. There were several times when I thought I had the shot underwater, only to discover it was out of focus or too red back on the boat.

Still Photography with the iPhone in i-Pix HousingI’d taken still pictures with compacts for a review of some of the most promising point and shoots last year, but wasn’t really sure how a phone would take still pictures underwater.

Underwater iPhone photography is perhaps easiest and most consistent when shooting medium to small sized subjects—those that can fit in the frame without having to move more than 4 feet away.

More medium sized subjects like lionfish and eels require a choice between using the red filter or artificial light—using both can often add too much of a red-ish hue to the image.

On the left, an image without filter or video light. On the right, the filter

adds back red and creates beautiful blue water

The i-Pix also holds up surprisingly well for macro subjects. Although you won’t be able to shoot 1:1 macro of blenny heads, subjects closer to an inch or two in length are well within reason: banded coral shrimp, seahorses and small eels. With these images using a video light is critical—it adds fill light and allows the camera to shoot at a higher shutter speed and avoid any blur.

This image, shot at night, was acheived with artificial light

from the i-Torch Video Pro 5.

With small subjects like this seahorse, the iPhone has some trouble focusing with just

the filter. Adding a video light makes focusing more accurate.

Adding artificial light also allows the iPhone camera to quicken the shutter speed,

creating a crisper image.

You can use continuous lighting in similar ways as strobes--here I've used side

lighting to add more texture to the abstract of brain coral

This tiny golden spot eel (head less than two inches) is the perfect macro size for the iPhone

Wide-angle with the iPhone proves to be a more challenging task. The 28mm equivalent lens doesn’t let the photographer get within two arms distances of larger subjects. This is where the red filter proves particularly useful, at longer distances from the subject where even strong video lights could not reach.

To combat this distance I used both the red filter to achieve crisp blue water and artificial light to fill in the main subject, be it a sponge or turtle.

While I could have just shot this image with only the red filter, adding a touch of

continuous light adds depth and detail to the sponge in the forground.

Combining a video light and artificial light can be tricky. Having both can result in too

much "red." I avoid this by holding the light by hand as far away from the subject to add just a kiss of light.

You might think there’s no real way to get an eye-popping wide-angle shots with a medium range camera phone, but I have one trick up my sleeve. Any number of panorama apps allows the photographer to stich images together in camera, helping to capture shipwrecks and large coral subjects in their wide-angle glory.

By using an in-camera panorama app, I can stitch several photos of this shipwreck together

The panorama technique allows the photographer to get closer to the subject and add

artificial light.

Underwater Video with the i-Pix HousingThe iPhone 4s and 5 are capable of shooting full 1080 HD video at a crisp 30 frames per second rate. While there is certainly an application for the i-Pix as a stills-only device, I think the most potential lies in using it to record HD underwater footage in an ultra-compact form, much like the GoPro.

As with any compact HD video recording device the name of the game is producing stable footage. While you can take pretty amazing shots with just the housing and the red filter, you can also take a step up by adding the i-Divesite tray and i-Torch Pro 5.

I-Divesite makes several filters to fit the i-Pix housing thread, including a red filter for tropical water and a magenta filter for green water environments. Although I tested only the red filter in the blue water of Cayman, I found it to do an excellent job of adding the appropriate amount of red in depths from 20-60 feet. In shallower conditions, like stingray city, the result was far too harsh a red hue. While with deeper subjects, the lack of light and increased "blueness" resulted in an almost all-blue image.

This filter comparison was conducted at 50 feet in clear, tropical Caymanian waters

Adding a Tray and i-Torch Video Pro 5The tray functions to add stability to an otherwise small housing. It’s light and compact, constructed from lightweight aluminum, and makes panning and following moving subjects like turtles or stingrays much smoother.

When shooting video of a free swimming eel, the tray made it much easier to keep the camera parallel with the subject than if I had been trying to grip it with just my hand. On a more practical level, the tray allowed the attachment of the i-Torch Pro 5 video light. When taking video of a moving subject like that free swimming eel or a turtle, the last thing you want to worry about is aiming your video light.

By adding the i-Torch Video Pro 5, I can eliminate some of the shadows underneath the turtle.

The video light is especially important at deep depths. This lionfish, shot at around

120 feet, would have had a blue/green hue if just shot with the filter.

The i-Torch Video Pro 5 is a 1600-lumen professional-level video light. It features a very soft edge of light instead of a hard fall off, which lends its self to either wide-angle video or stills where the artificial light can’t fill the entire scene.

Underwater photo enthusiasts hoping to use their iPhone/i-Pix in more than just a casual way will appreciate the addition of an artificial light to fill the shadows in the scene. Although continuous lighting is a natural thought for video shooting, it’s less obvious for stills—but still quite effective.

Even in the shallows of Stingray City, using the Pro 4 added back a kiss of light to the

sand and subject's face.

Practical Tips for Using i-Pix HousingUsing a touch screen phone underwater does take a little while to get accustomed to. It took several rather unproductive dives to iron out the kinks of the system—but here I’ve combined a few tips I learned the hard way, so you don’t have to!

Turn off notifications: If a notification from another application pops up in the middle of a dive, there is no way to close out of it in the middle of the diveCharge your phone: You never want to go into the water with a half charged camera, but it’s especially important with a battery-sucking iPhone. What’s more, when that 20 percent battery warning pops up, there’s no way to close it

Switch between apps: There were a few times when the Watershot app froze and I needed to switch to the regular camera app. Configure your phone so that you have the Watershot app on the left side of the home dock and your phone’s camera app on the other—that way you can access them at any point throughout the diveMake Space: While most photographers are used to downloading and backing up their images, our phones tend to be a little less organized. A few movies, music and emails can add up pretty quickly. There’s nothing worse than reaching the iPhone’s storage limit when a pair of eagle rays come flying bye (trust me).

No, Siri is Not Available: Believe it or not Siri can’t help you find your way back to the dive boat.

Thanks for doing such a great review. I love underwater iphone photography and your review is really helpful. I'm considering purchasing the same video light that you used (Video Pro 5 at 1600 Lumens) but I wanted to see if you found it too bright or too dim or had a different recommendation. They make a similar light that has the option of a red light mode (Video Pro 4 at 1350 Lumens but has both white and red modes) that I'm also considering. Any suggestions?

Ben, the only time I found it slightly too bright was on night dives--here i preferred to use the lesser output of a photo focus light. The automatic exposure of the iphone does a good job of compensation in either case. Definitely a solid video light--especially for an iphone!

Doug, do you mean using the red as a focus light for video or still shooting? If using it as a focus light for still shooting with strobes, will the light automatically detect the strobes and power off to avoid the light color/source conflict?

Joseph, when you say that you used the lesser output of a focus light for night dive shooting, do you mean the video pro 5 turned down to 50% or do you mean a different light altogether. If it was a different light, how many lumens was the light you liked.

Featured Photographer

I absolutley love the ocean.I was born and raised in South Africa, and while travelling met my wife and settled in Israel. I started diving when I was just 13, though only started photography about 3 years ago. I worked as a...